To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Parallel translations
- WEB To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.
- KJV To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
- NKJV To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- NASB To do righteousness and justice Is preferred by the Lord more than sacrifice.
- NLT The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Doing what is right and just pleases God more than sacrifice. It matters because God desires obedience and integrity over mere ritual.
Overview
Religious offerings cannot substitute for righteous living and justice (1 Samuel 15:22; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8). God looks for a heart that loves justice, not empty ceremony. Jesus affirmed this priority (Matthew 9:13), and true worship issues in lives marked by righteousness toward God and neighbor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Sam 15:22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.
- Hos 6:6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
- Mic 6:6–8With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?
- Mark 12:33and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
- Jer 7:21–23This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
- Isa 1:11–17“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Ps 50:8I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 21:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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